493 The Magician. Who On Earth Is He?
The old orc let out a heavy sigh. In the past, his curious subordinates would have approached him and said it was nothing, that they would catch and kill the guy right away. However, the orcs had lost a lot of their confidence after the series of events they had gone through.
The old orc muttered with a bitter expression.
“The ‘mother’ we had is broken. The godmothers who supported the Orcma are trembling in fear. The ordinary members of the Orcma are running away one by one. Not from the magician, but from us, the Orcma. Humph. We’re a laughingstock now. No one fears us anymore. When I went out into the streets today, a guy was openly shouting that he was selling pork in the pigsty. He said that he had made it all into sausages and stored it in the warehouse because of someone.
“Who was it? I’ll go and kill him!”
“That’s the problem.”
The old orc answered self-deprecatingly as he watched the young orc who seemed furious.
“He touched the Sapien of Oberi. Even if he fell for the magician’s trick, it was a painful blunder. Now, the security forces recognizes the Orcma as a dangerous group. They look at us with suspicion whenever they see a pigman, and they are ready to detain us as soon as we cause any trouble.”
“That’s how it’s always been!”
“No, it hasn’t. We weren’t even in their sights before. They didn’t even treat us as fellow humans.”
No matter how many pigmen there were or how well the Orcma hid, there was a limit. If they had been stronger than the public authority of Ende, they would have built a city.
The Orcma had simply hidden among the crowd and acted for the interests of the pigmen, but it was a fact that their power had dwindled as the situation grew and Oberi responded.
“Those Oberi bastards, they never cared about Ende’s security before, but now they’re arresting everyone because a public official was attacked!”
“It must be the magician’s trick. Damn it. What kind of guy is he… Judging by his actions, he seems to be familiar with Ende’s physiology. He might have stayed for a decade.”
“Why did such a guy start moving now! There must be a reason. A reason for doing this!”
In fact, the magician had not been in Ende for even a month, and he was acting for the very simple reason that he did not want to listen to nagging. However, the orcs, who could not know such circumstances, came up with other reasons.
“There is a guess for the reason.”
All eyes turned to the old orc. The old orc slowly rose from his seat and said.
“Grull of the Beast Faction. You all know him, right?”
Then, a complicated silence hung over the Orcma’s leadership.
Not all pigmen are the same comrades. Some belong to the order of Ende and live peacefully, while others, like the Orcma, harbor resentment and work in the shadows. However, even that is a story that takes place within Ende.
The Beast Faction are savages who live in the harsh lands of the Ende Plains.
The Ende Plains are a blessed land. For humans and beasts alike. The fertile land is covered with vegetation, and the flesh of the herbivores that graze on it is plump.
Then, the beasts that eat the beasts flock to it. They must fight an endless battle against this harsh nature, other predators who want to monopolize the prey, and formidable prey. Until they die of old age or weakness. Anyway, until they die.
The Beast Faction survived there.Even though humans have developed their own civilization, the beastmen also have their own writing, clothing, and houses. However, their level of development is less than half of that of ordinary humans. Most of the time, the beastmen struggle to survive.
After the transmission of qi cultivation, their struggle also included qi cultivation. The beastmen learned and used qi cultivation in order to survive. Their qi cultivation, which evolved in its own unique direction, produced miracles.
The enlightened orc, Grull. The glory of the pig beastmen.
“He will soon join the battle against the wolf king. It seems like he will join them.”
“…I heard that he fears the beast king.”
“It seems like news of our dog king has reached them. And the boy who brought the dog king is also said to be as strong as the beast king. It seems like that fact has had some influence. We, who are also pig beastmen but cause trouble, must have been a thorn in his side.”
From somewhere, the secret of Oberi that he had heard leaked out of the old orc’s mouth.
Shea is not delicate, but he hates troublesome things. That’s why when he visited Oberi, he firmly told them to keep the matters related to the dog king a secret. This is because it would be troublesome if the dog beastmen who recognized the scent of their kin gathered.
Ender’s market, Triber, kept the secret faithfully… but unfortunately, the secret he was trying to hide spread to the lowest levels of Ender.
The orcs who heard the information twitched their wide noses.
“Hmm. If Grull has come, the pig beastmen will play a big role in this battle….”
The fact that the glory of the pig beastmen would stand as the vanguard of Ender was definitely good news. However, the pig beastmen could not accept the glory purely.
Because,
“But the problem is that the pig beastman is not ‘us’. The gladiator Grull is not interested in the rights of the pig beastmen!”
This is because the glory of an individual is not the glory of the species.
As there is light, there is also shadow. The dragon that grew up in the gutter despised the place where it was born. The ones who felt the most intense hatred towards him were the gutter bugs who watched their kin ascend alone.
“He is arrogant! He just spouts nonsense that the despised pig beastmen lack effort!”
“Even Sapienzo, the genius who was so highly anticipated, could not do what he did! He makes it seem like something that anyone can do, when it is a miracle in itself!”
“Will he come to help us if he just tells us to practice while we are whining? He will just ignore us and go up to Oberi and receive the same treatment as the other celebrities! He won’t even need to cut his ears and tail. The qi cultivation that has reached the realm of reason is a qualification in itself!”
They feel inferior to humans, but when it comes to Grull, they feel betrayed by him. The violent and painful reaction, like that of a salted loach, shook the pig beastmen. Only after the emotions that were close to a seizure subsided did the old orc open his mouth.
“Even so, he is our kin. That is an unchanging fact.”
That’s right. The glory of the pig beastmen definitely brought glory. After Grull’s appearance, all the claims that the pig beastmen were ignorant, inferior, or lacking in intelligence disappeared. From the celebrities of Oberi to the strongest unit called the Obelisk, everyone is aware of him.
The pig beastmen are at a peak that even the Obelisk, who reigns like a king in Ender, has not reached. They are qi cultivators who are too outstanding to feel inferior.”The obelisk only captured and imprisoned our orcs because he was aware of him. Before Grull joined Ende, he wanted to lock up the troublemaker. The first fang Urkpeng and some of the members are said to be doing well in Obeli’s prison.”
“Isn’t Obeli’s prison still a prison?”
“The prison there is one room larger than your house. Hmm, I wouldn’t give a room to an orc. I guess he’s worried about Grull.”
This time too, the old orc gave out information he had heard from somewhere. Some of the young orcs who heard the story made complicated expressions.
“We will soon fight the wolf king. Everyone in Ende must join forces. In particular, the power of our orcs, who have the largest number, is essential. Ende will ask us for help and ask us to die instead.”
“…But the fight is also necessary for us. If the wolf pack roaming the Ende plains sweeps away, our orcs will not be able to survive.”
“We have to get everything we can while we’re risking our lives!”
“Grull will fight instead, and he won’t do anything we want! Fair treatment? Fair chance? Grull doesn’t care about that!”
“This time, we have to come forward and negotiate. If we can’t achieve it with our own hands, Ende will revert to the past.”
However, the foundation for that was destroyed.
The orcs were gradually expanding their power. Hidden in anonymity, they were on the verge of emerging as a force with the support of numerous pigmen. If the orcs had been alive, Obeli would have negotiated with them, even to fight the wolf king.
But now that secretive and huge organization has been destroyed. To a single human being, not Obeli or the wolf king.
“If only I hadn’t been a wizard, I wouldn’t have had to hide like this…”
“It’s not okay to hide.”
An orc who had been listening in a corner suddenly stood up. Now that everyone was silent, it was the only chance he had. Tilla, a young and romantic orc woman, appealed strongly to the other orcs.
“Let’s go out into the streets! Gather the rest of them and march towards Obeli!”
“March?”
“Yes. March. We have to make our intentions known. But it will take thousands of years to do it the way we’ve been doing it behind the scenes. If you don’t speak directly, your voice will not reach you. For once, we need to convey it to everyone in Ende, not just Obeli!”
The pigmen, who had only made absurd claims every day, were marching or protesting. As always, the other pigmen condemned her.
“Hmm! Tilla, you idiot. March? Are you protesting that the police and the obelisk are openly arresting you? Even if a thousand people gather, they will all be subdued within two hours and will be rolling on the ground!”
“However, if we do that, we will earn the resentment of more than ten thousand people. If we tolerate the voices demanding fair treatment even while the wolf king is invading! Nothing will justify them!”
“Do you need justification? The other party is the powerful rulers of Obeli who have all the power and authority? Just crush them with force!”
“Grull will help us!”
This time, his name came a little fresh.
Grull is a beastman. He has experienced survival of the fittest in the harsh wilderness. That’s why he despises the pigmen who live in Ende and eat the dregs.”I think Grull is right. If we don’t act, we won’t get anything. Of course, it would be nice if it was a power gained through sheer effort. Unfortunately, we weren’t even given the opportunity to try.”
But that doesn’t mean Grull is cruel.
If he was truly cruel, he would have enjoyed his own success alone instead of gathering the savages of the Ende Plains and building up his power. He would have become the ruler of Ende instead of the guardian of the Beastfang.
“We are asking. Give us a chance to try. If we have the opportunity to eat, learn, and grow, we too can reach new heights like Grull.”
That’s why he wouldn’t despise the pig-men, but he wouldn’t ignore them either. Quite political, but at the same time, the young orc sang his dream with eyes full of longing.
“Grull did it too. I don’t think Grull is special, but he is the only one. There is potential in the pig-men! Just as spring comes after winter, spring will come to us orcs who have endured these difficult times!”
An unrealistic and absurd story, like a sweet drug.
But the orcs who had been hit by the sorcerer needed some kind of drug to get drunk on.